Formal and Informal Assessment of Student Learning
I. Assignment Description/Requirements
Informal: Types of Chemical Reactions Lab
Formal: Chemical Reactions Unit Test
II. Preparation / Development
1. Reflect on your current assessment practices. How have you been determining what students understand and what they are able to do?
I tend to quiz my CP Chemistry students every other class because it gives me feedback on how my pace is and how well they are grasping the material. I try to collect some sort of in-class work each time class meets to check the progress of my students and how attentive they were that day. Looking at these assignments shows me the misconceptions the students still have and allows me to go back and review/ fix the misconception the next time class meets. I give them a test(formal assessment) once I've taught the whole unit and that gives me an idea of how much they learned throughout the unit and what they are capable of doing. If students still have misconceptions after the test is over, I make sure that during the next unit, that misconception is addressed and repeatedly reinforced. For example, the students had a very difficult time forming ionic compounds in Chapter 6 and so in Chapter 8, I practiced that skill and re-explained it whenever we needed to predict products of a chemical reaction.
2. Describe the concept(s) that you are trying to assess in these assignments. Include a link to the appropriate GSE(s) on RIScienceTeachers. Be sure to include in your description your definition, examples of what it is, why students have difficulty with this concept, and why it is important that you teach this topic
For the informal assessment, I am trying to assess the students' ability to recognize what type of reaction is illustrated by each mini lab. The mini labs consisted of a combination/combustion, decomposition, single replacement, and double replacement. Students have difficulty with this because they may see the reaction take place, but they don't quite know how to figure out what the products of the reaction are. It is important to teach this topic because chemical reactions occur everyday and being able to identify one occurring and maybe predict what the products are, is an important scientific skill.
For the formal assessment, I am assessing their full understanding of the 5 types of chemical reactions. Chemical reactions occur when one or more reactants interact, causing the formation and breakage of bonds, which leads to new products being formed. Examples of these 5 types of reactions are combination, decomposition, combustion, single replacement, and double replacement. In this formal assessment, the students must be able to identify the 5 types of reactions, balance them correctly, and predict the products of the reactions. Students have difficulty with this concept because they see the chemical reactions as a mess of symbols that can't be simplified/categorized. It is important to teach this topic because Chemistry is all about identifying chemical reactions, predicting what will happen when two substances interact, and predicting how much of a product you will obtain from a reaction.
3. (and 7) Describe an informal assessment that you selected, modified, or designed to address this concept. Summarize the instructions you gave your students and Include a link to the informal assessment here as well.
My informal assessment is titled Types of Chemical Reactions Lab. Students will follow the specific instructions for each mini lab procedure, record all their observations, answer the mini lab questions, and then determine what type of chemical reaction they observed during each lab. Once they have done this, they will write balanced chemical equations for all 4 mini labs, and finish by writing an explanation of each mini lab and link it to the correct type of chemical reaction that occurred.
4. (and 8) Create a formal assessment. Describe this assessment, including concepts, types of items, and how it was assessed. Include a link to a copy of the assessment here as well.
This formal assessment is a unit exam on Chemical Reactions. It addresses such concepts as the law of conservation of mass, the reactivity of metals, and classifying chemical reactions. The items on this test include matching, multiple choice, and short answer questions. Matching questions were worth 1 point each, multiple choice questions were worth 2 points each, and short answer questions were worth different amounts depending on the effort required.
6. Develop the evaluation criteria (or key) for your informal assessment or link it here. This description should include the assessment's features, how it addresses different depths of knowledge, as well as an explanation of how it addresses a scientific practice related to inquiry.
This informal assessment consists of both low level and high level items. Following the procedure, which was given in the lab packet, is considered to be a DOK 1 because it does not involve high levels of thinking or analyzing. All the students are required to do, is read the directions and follow the steps. An aspect that is DOK 2 would be the recording, analyzing, and classifying of each of the mini labs. This is definitely higher level thinking than just following steps because the students now have to make observations, collect the data, and then group each mini lab into one of the 5 reaction categories. The students are required to write complete, balanced equations after they have completed each mini lab, and this involves some high level thinking. This is DOK 3 because the students are using their observations to form these chemical equations. The only information the students were given was the chemicals being reacted in each lab. They had to determine what products would form from the reaction of the materials. This required them to draw conclusions based on only partial information.
This assessment addresses the scientific practice of collecting and analyzing data. As stated above, the students were told which chemicals each mini lab required. They completed a series of steps, and made observations before and after each reaction. The students collected this data in the data table, and then used it to determine which type of reaction they had completed. Merely performing the experiment wasn't the end, because they needed to use what they observed in the experiment to identify the products.
7. & 8. - Already addressed above.
9. For your informal assesssment, upload scans of the work of three or four students. The work of each student should be on a different page. At the bottom of each students' page, you should describe the level of student understanding, e.g. high, average, or low, and describe how this is indicated in their answers. An example of how to do this is here. Note: Remember to name the pages you create carefully, e.g. "Smith S10 - High Performing" instead of "High-Performing."
10 For you formal assessment, describe how you think it addressed the concepts you were trying to assess? How did you modify the assessment to address learning differences or special needs?
This formal assessment assessed the concept of conservation of mass in the items that required balancing the chemical equations. Items in which the students were shown a chemical reaction and asked what type of reaction it was, assessed the concept of classifying chemical reactions. The reactivity of metals was assessed in the short answer question where the students predict the products of the single replacement reaction, as well as in some multiple choice items.
None of my students taking this formal assessment have an IEP but some students do have difficulty making sense out of word problems. For these students, only if they approach me during the unit test, I will reword the question in a different way.
Some students take more time on tests so I give the students the entire period to finish the test. If they need more time than that, they come finish during Academic Lab or come after school. The students who finish their test early will start defining the vocabulary terms for the next chapter we will cover.
III. Analysis / Reflection
11. Use both the informal and formal assessments to describe what you learned about what your students understand about these concepts. Use specific examples from both the informal and formal assessment to illustrate your points. What can your students do now that they could not before, and what do they still need to learn?
From the informal assessment, I learned that I need to include the student write-up in my lesson. I feel that most students did not hand in their assessment because they tend to not complete assignments for homework, even if specifically told to do so. After administering the informal assessment, I learned that the students still don't completely understand how to form compounds from two elements. The students conducted each mini lab, but then they struggled with writing the balanced equations. I took the time to discuss, with the whole class, how they should go about deciding what the products of each reaction should be. Many students couldn't make the connection between visually seeing a reaction and writing it in words.
After this formal assessment, my students are better at looking at chemical reactions and then classifying them. Most students succeeded on the items which required classification of the reaction. They are also more successful at predicting whether or not a single replacement reaction will occur. Most students struggled during the lesson on predicting products and using their activity series. It seems that some of the little sayings I repeatedly used stuck with them and aided them in the assessment. What students still need to work on is going from the word form of a chemical reaction to writing the full balanced chemical equation. A few of the questions were in word format, and many students struggled with changing something like "aluminum combines with oxygen" to "Al + O2."
12. OMIT
13. For your formal assessment only, select one student characteristic, e.g. ability, gender, age, etc) and compare the relative performance of each group. Hint: Use box and whiskers plots to compare the two groups. What do you conclude from this comparison? Why?
I selected gender as my comparative measure for the formal assessment. The average score for the male students was 65.9, while the average score for the female students was a 63.8. These grades are comparable in range and I attribute this to the way students in Coventry are grouped. My class is labeled a college prep class with level 2 math skills. The levels range from 1-3 with level 1 containing the students with strong math skills, and level 3 containing students who need full support in math concepts and a special educator is present. Because most of my students are at the same "level," I expect them to score similarly.
14. Describe any ways in which you involved students in self-assessment. How did you communicate what you learned from your informal and formal assessments to your students? What did they do with this information?
After I scored the formal assessments, I passed them back to the students and discussed the need for them to study for these assessments. It seemed that those students who definitely studied for the test, performed better than those who didn't study at all. Although they may all have the same potential for success, they hinder their performance with a lack of effort. Some students really listened to this discussion and started coming for extra help. But it wasn't long before they stopped showing up.
15: Most Important: Compare your objectives for student learning (both in terms of science concepts and practices) to the student learning you observed. What did you learn about your teaching based on the student performances? What will you do differently next time? Why would you make these changes? What, if anything, will you do to improve the assessment instruments?
For the informal assessment, I believe that my students only partially completed the objectives I set forth. The students did classify each reaction they conducted, and they also identified the reactants and some products. What they did not learn was how to see a reaction, and then write its chemical equation. From this assessment, I learned that as the teacher, I need to scaffold this experiment more. I let go of the reigns and saw that this did not benefit my students because they seemed very lost when it came to determining the products of the reactions. Next time, I will definitely do this experiment in a longer period of time, allowing for more thought and processing while conducting the reactions. Students didn't seem to have enough time to really examine the reaction and discuss the probable products. For the assessment part, I will write more specific instructions in the Explanation because I think that it was very vague and most students did not understand what they were being asked to do. Unless I spend more time on predicting the products of reactions, then it is not completely fair to expect the students to do this on their own. I do think that my objective of having them conduct scientific practices was successful, because the students did a really good job of following the procedure and collecting their data and observations. Next time I could include filling out the data table in the rubric for assessing these students because it was an important part of this experiment.
For the formal assessment, I think that my students definitely learned how to classify reactions, but I don't think they really learned how to write balanced equations. From the teaching perspective, I did not spend enough time on transforming word equations to chemical equations, and that is why they did poorly on those items on the formal assessment. Next time, I will definitely include more items that accurately reflect the information I spent time on, and include less items that I spent little time covering. I would make these changes because it is only fair to test the students on things they were taught and had enough practice in mastering.
Formal and Informal Assessment of Student Learning
I. Assignment Description/Requirements
II. Preparation / Development
1. Reflect on your current assessment practices. How have you been determining what students understand and what they are able to do?
2. Describe the concept(s) that you are trying to assess in these assignments. Include a link to the appropriate GSE(s) on RIScienceTeachers. Be sure to include in your description your definition, examples of what it is, why students have difficulty with this concept, and why it is important that you teach this topic
3. (and 7) Describe an informal assessment that you selected, modified, or designed to address this concept. Summarize the instructions you gave your students and Include a link to the informal assessment here as well.
4. (and 8) Create a formal assessment. Describe this assessment, including concepts, types of items, and how it was assessed. Include a link to a copy of the assessment here as well.
5. Develop the evaluation criteria (or key) for your formal assessment or link it here.
6. Develop the evaluation criteria (or key) for your informal assessment or link it here. This description should include the assessment's features, how it addresses different depths of knowledge, as well as an explanation of how it addresses a scientific practice related to inquiry.
7. & 8. - Already addressed above.
9. For your informal assesssment, upload scans of the work of three or four students. The work of each student should be on a different page. At the bottom of each students' page, you should describe the level of student understanding, e.g. high, average, or low, and describe how this is indicated in their answers. An example of how to do this is here. Note: Remember to name the pages you create carefully, e.g. "Smith S10 - High Performing" instead of "High-Performing."
10 For you formal assessment, describe how you think it addressed the concepts you were trying to assess? How did you modify the assessment to address learning differences or special needs?
III. Analysis / Reflection
11. Use both the informal and formal assessments to describe what you learned about what your students understand about these concepts. Use specific examples from both the informal and formal assessment to illustrate your points. What can your students do now that they could not before, and what do they still need to learn?
12. OMIT
13. For your formal assessment only, select one student characteristic, e.g. ability, gender, age, etc) and compare the relative performance of each group. Hint: Use box and whiskers plots to compare the two groups. What do you conclude from this comparison? Why?
14. Describe any ways in which you involved students in self-assessment. How did you communicate what you learned from your informal and formal assessments to your students? What did they do with this information?
15: Most Important: Compare your objectives for student learning (both in terms of science concepts and practices) to the student learning you observed. What did you learn about your teaching based on the student performances? What will you do differently next time? Why would you make these changes? What, if anything, will you do to improve the assessment instruments?